Sent: 04/23/2017 From
Alicia
Subject: West Coast Westra Update 4/23/17
Sun, 23 Apr 2017 22:01:28 -0700
Hola familia!
We kind of got out of the
groove with our family letters around spring break, so we're trying to get back
on track. We hope you've all had a good week and weekend...we had quite the
debate today in the car about whether Sunday is the first day of the week or
the last...some people (Calder) are very opinionated!
Monday was back to the usual
routine. Calder had speech and was assigned some sounds to review in addition
to the sounds he's been working on. He's pretty good about practicing every day
and it is cool to hear the sounds falling into place where they should. He was
happy to get back to school. He had missed his teachers and friends. Adria had
her mandolin lesson right after school. I returned the divider screen I had
borrowed for Margie and LaMar's visit to my friend. The girls FaceTimed with
their Utah friends and got homework done so we could watch a little of "The
Great British Bake Show" on Netflix for some family time.
Tuesday was also normal,
except for the whole Tax Day thing. I had to send in a hard copy of my business
taxes, so I managed to do that. Calder and I also went and picked up a trailer
bike from a woman who attends our ward. Calder always wants to go on the longer
bike rides with Shane and the girls, so we're hoping that this will allow him
to join in. Rella had dance, Adria has been working hard on Personal Progress.
She's trying to finish the Knowledge section in time for Young Women in
Excellence next week.
Wednesday was a little crazy.
Adria has been wanting to get her hair cut, so I hurried home from my exercise
class to take her and Rella for a trim. Adria cut quite a bit off, and she
looks so grown up! Rella just had an inch trimmed off to even out the ends.
Calder had asked for a haircut that morning, so I trimmed his hair up before
school. We also had swimming (Calder is doing so well and Adria is really
polishing up her technique). Adria had a first aid night to prepare for camp at
the stake center (our camp director gave her a ride) and Rella had activity
days. Shane had a work event in the evening, so Calder came to the church and
hung out with me. We played games and chatted with friends while we waited for
Rella, then went to pick Adria up at the camp director's house. Since we are 20
minutes from the church (and a lot of the ward members' homes), we try to
combine trips as much as possible. It was a tricky evening to coordinate!
Thursday was pretty
routine...school, dance, Ukulele. Adria's been working on a project for
Personal Progress. She is learning how to plan and prepare meals and making a
cookbook binder for herself using the recipes that she makes. She's been taking
meticulous notes, too. She made pancakes for dinner. My visiting teachers came
over in the afternoon.
Fridays are always a little
different since Calder doesn't have school. He and I went to the grocery store
and Costco to pick up some things we needed and also to get some stuff for the
Youth Progressive Dinner on Saturday Night. Halfway through the grocery store I
remembered that I needed to pick up a book as a birthday gift for a party on
Saturday, so we added a stop to the bookstore in there as well. The Costco here
doesn't seem to carry as wide a selection of books as the ones in Utah. Rella
and Calder went with me to pick up Adria from Animation club after school, then
we all went to a park in San Carlos to meet up with some of our friends from
the ward. It was a gorgeous day and very warm! Adria's inflatable kayak and
life jackets had arrived earlier in the day, but she didn't have time to try
them out. She's very excited to get some time on the water this week. Shane and
I had a date night at an Italian restaurant in San Carlos and then to the
grocery store (again) to get some things that I hadn't been able to find at
Costco.
Saturday was really busy!
Shane got up early to play soccer with some guys from the ward. The girls had a
birthday party (a bike trail ride party in San Mateo) in the morning. I had a
photoshoot in the early afternoon, and Adria had a second party to go to for a
school friend. I headed over to the church to help set up for the Youth
Progressive Dinner, then Shane brought Adria over a little later. The
Progressive Dinner is an activity that the youth really look forward to. They
all dress in Sunday clothes and gather at the church, then head out in groups
to different homes in the ward for appetizers. They spend time visiting with
their hosts before moving on to the next home for the main course. After they
finish eating and visiting they all come back to the church for dessert. The YW
presidency set up a chocolate fountain and things to dip in it, which the kids
enjoyed. Then they played a game of "Fruit Bowl." It's a 3 round game
with 2 teams. They sit in alternating order (team one, team two, one, two...and
so on) and before the game starts everyone writes things on pieces of paper to
be drawn out. You want them to be things that are fairly well known, but you
can write whatever you want. For example, Adria wrote red pencil, toenails, and
inflatable kayak. Then the fun begins. The first round is like catchphrase, but
you keep going for a full minute, drawing as many cards as you can before your
time runs out. Then the next person (on the other team) goes. The round ends
when you run out of either people or cards. Any cards that didn't get drawn are
discarded, the points are tallied, and the drawn cards get put back in for
round two (charades). It's the same format, but no words or sounds can be used.
Round three is one word only to describe what is on the card. It is very
fun...the kids had a good time.
Today we had ward conference,
which was excellent. We just had 2 extended blocks...a long sacrament meeting
and a long 3rd hour meeting. The primary kids had shorter classes and just
sharing time. The youth meeting was about asking questions (building on the
youth theme for the year). The Priesthood meeting was about Faith. After church
we came home and quickly changed, then packed a picnic and some stuff in the
car before driving down to the Stanford Quad for a picnic with some ward
friends. It was a beautiful day for roller blading, frisbee, soccer, and
finding caterpillars. We had a great time. When we returned home, Adria got to
work making bread and fixing dinner. She baked asparagus and grilled chicken
(with help from dad) in addition to the bread. It was a good dinner! We're
looking forward to whatever she makes next! After dinner we played a few rounds
of Apples to Apples, which the kids always enjoy.
Tune in next week for
interesting topics such as Shane and the kids' camping trip to Pinnacles,
Adria's excursion to the middle school production of Peter Pan with some
friends, and other general hijinks.
Finally, we want to make you
aware of the results of Calder's Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Testing. We met
with the preschool psychologist and Calder's preschool teacher back on April
6th to go over the assessment methods and results. Based on the assessments,
Calder appears to be on the very high functioning end of the Autism Spectrum
(in other words, he's very mildly autistic.) What does this mean? He's wired a
little differently than the general population and will need to learn some skills
that most people pick up naturally. We will be taking him to a Developmental
Pediatrician to get a medical opinion and to get referrals for any other
therapy that Calder may need (behavioral or occupational). His school services
will remain the same and he will be able to attend kindergarten as planned.
He's been making some great progress with his social goals in class, which is
really encouraging. The number one thing that you as our family can do to help
and support us is to simply treat Calder as you would any 5 year old. He's not
behind at all academically...in fact, he scores much higher than neurotypically
developing peers in some areas. Even though we had our suspicions about this
diagnosis for a while, it's still taken some time to process this
information...in fact, I debated including it in this letter at all. But you
are our family, and we could use your prayers as we figure out what will help
Calder make the most progress, so if you could include us in your prayers, that
would be much appreciated.
Love you all...have a great week!
Shane, Alicia, Chef Adria, Ballerina
Rella, and Mechanically Minded Calder
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